Heathrow Airport Expansion

Lord Haselhurst Excerpts

Thursday 17th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

My Lords, as I have already stated, any expansion at Heathrow must meet strict criteria on air quality.

[Lord Haselhurst (Con) [V]]

My Lords, if the case for the expansion of Heathrow is to enable it to compete effectively with the continental hub airports such as Schiphol and Charles de Gaulle, is it not clear that, looking forward on present projections, three runways will simply not be enough? An alternative would be this. When the pandemic is over, is it not distinctly likely that airlines will be looking for smaller and more fuel-efficient aircraft with low emissions that can make many more point-to-point flights from other UK airports that will be both economic and convenient?

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

My noble Lord has made a number of important points and I am sure that Heathrow Airport Ltd, like all airports across the country, is thinking about potential changes to aircraft size and point-to-point rather than hub airports in the future. I am fairly sure that they will take those considerations into account.